Kayyur Martyrs Day

Subbarayan, a police constable, who participated in police beating at Kayyur fell into the hands of protesters on the very next day. People were enthusiastic to handle him. But leaders discouraged them. The police man was asked to lead the protest march holding the flag. He did it since there was no other go, when he got a chance he jumped into the river and tried to escape. But he got drowned in the river.

Then peasant movement and Congress were strong in Kayyur and suburbs. Police and vested interests took Kayyur incident as an opportunity to suppress revolutionary movement. They charged a case against 61 people in Kayyur and around. Of them the court decided five to be hanged into death. They were Madathil Appu, Koyithattil Chirukandan, Podora Kunhampu Nair, Pallikkal Abubacker and Churikkadan Krishnan Nair. Others were condemned to imprisonment for various periods. Since Churikkadan was a minor then, his hanging was reduced to imprisonment for life. All effort to save them from hanging failed. These four were hanged on 1943 March 29 crying out "Down with fascism! Down with imperialism! Long live the Communist Party of India!" Kayyur thus emerged as a glorious symbol of peasant militancy that was clearly anti-feudal and anti-imperialist at the same time, with the lowest rungs of the rural people playing a frontal role. They were the first martyrs of Indian peasant movement.

CPIM - CPI plan ‘jail bharo' on April 8

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India have criticised the government for serving the interests of traders and black-marketers at the expense of farmers and consumers.

The two Left parties alleged that traders and middlemen were creating artificial scarcity by hoarding huge quantities of essential commodities and this was resulting in steep hike in prices of essentials.

The government was, instead, registering cases against leaders and activists of the Left parties who unearthed these stocks.

Mounting pressure

CPI (M) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu and his CPI counterpart K. Narayana said the Left parties had decided to intensify their agitations to mount pressure on the State and Central governments to take steps to check price rise. The two leaders released posters educating people on the Jail Bharo programme being organised by the Left parties on April 8 in line with a call given by their national leaderships.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Raghavulu said the two parties would mobilise thousands of people to conduct picketing in front of the government offices at mandal and district levels as part of the programme. It would be preceded by joint seminars and other programmes to create awareness among the people on the ‘detrimental' effects of the policies adopted by the governments.

Dr. Narayana Said that though there was an overall decline in prices of food commodities at field level, the benefit was not being passed on to either the consumers or farmers indicating the role of middlemen.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Rejoinder to Home Minister

The CPI(M) has issued the following rejoinder to the remarks of Mr. P. Chidambaram, which appeared in The Hindu dated 28^th March 2010.

The Home Minister has termed the fact of 77 % of our population living below Rs.20/- per day as a “myth” propagated by the Left.

He has done so by misquoting the Left as saying that 77 per cent of the population has a per capita income of Rs.20 per day. What the Left has been citing is the figure provided by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, which was set up by the previous UPA Government in 2004. The Report on Conditions of Work and Livelihoods in the Unorganised Sector submitted to the Prime Minister by the NCEUS in August 2007, states in the first page of its first chapter:

“At the end of 2004-05, about 836 million or 77 per cent of the population were living below Rs.20 per day and constituted most of India’s informal economy.” This report is available in the public domain. (http://nceus.gov.in/)

The Home Minister would do well to study the Reports of his own Government more carefully in order to better his understanding of the prevailing socio-economic conditions of people in the country.